To verify this, the application needs to review the MSA segment of the ACK message. MSA-1 will contain the acknowledgment status of the message. Below are the typical values you will find in this field:

3. The response received is for the last HL7 message that was system sent.

The third piece of qualifying the response is verifying that the message control ID value in MSA-2 of the ACK message matches the message control ID that was in MSH-10 of the message that was originally sent.

To illustrate this point, take a look at the following HL7 message, followed by the corresponding HL7 acknowledgment message that would be returned:

Qualification 1: The ACK message is a properly formatted HL7 message.
Qualification 2: The ACK message has the value ‘AA’ in MSA-1, this means the application successfully received the message.
Qualification 3: The message control ID in MSA-2 of the ACK matches the message control ID sent in MSH-10 of the message.

When interfacing in the real world, it is important to remember that not every system will handle acknowledgments the same way. You will interface with systems that send you HL7 standard messages and do not wait for a response of any kind prior to sending the next message. In this scenario, your system will not be able to send back acknowledgment messages. This type of message delivery is never recommended.

Mike Stockemer is a Corepoint Health healthcare integration specialist and has worked with many different independent software vendors in solving their interfacing challenges. Additionally, he has assisted providers such as imaging centers and hospitals in streamlining their workflows and simplifying the interfaces deployed. Mike has deep experience in ensuring customers are successful with healthcare interfacing initiatives.

why is the control id in MSH-10 of the HL7 Acknowledgement also the same as the MSA-2? I’ve noticed this in a few examples.

Ie, they are both “MSGID12349876” in this example. I assume the MSH-10 Control ID would be a unique ID to the responding system right? It would never be identical to the control ID which was received and is being responded to (MSA-2)

Jono

You’d hope it wasn’t! Ultimately though, it could be, based on the convention of the ACKing system – but ideally it should be prefixing it, or making it distinct enough to know where it originated.

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